Intimate Partner Stalking: Impact on Children, Friends and Family

Intimate partner stalking can be affected by and have an effect on children, friends and family.

Having children in common with a stalker may increase the likelihood of interaction or more difficulty in changing routines,
thus increasing the opportunity for the stalker to access the victim. [1][2]

Partner stalking victims may experience more threats about the children than partner violence victims who do not report being
stalked (e.g., threatening to obtain custody of children, sending threats through children, actually threatening to harm the
children, and kidnapping or threatening to kidnap children). [3-5]

Researchers report that partner stalking victims and violent partners with children in common are 8.4 times more likely to
experience threats of child harm or interference after obtaining a protective order than partner violence victims who were
not stalked. [6]

Having children in common with the stalker also may increase the likelihood of harassment through the court system or child
protective services. [7-9] Researchers found that some mothers feared that child custody could be threatened if child protective services or the courts
believed the children were at risk in the home or that the mother was "unfit," as this is the message the partner often conveyed
during the course of stalking. [10]

Mothers were concerned for their children's safety, and children sometimes fear the stalker or what the stalker might do.
[11]

Partner stalking victims are impacted socially.

Women experiencing stalking often become disconnected from their social networks or social opportunities. [12-17]

Friends, family and new partners are vulnerable to threats, harassment and actual assault by the stalker. [18] Friends and family of partner stalking victims were 4.5 times more likely to have been threatened, harassed or actually assaulted
than those who were not stalked. [19]